Technique of bundling



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amasse Patented Oct. 16, 1962 39858586 TECIWIQUE GF BUNDLWG Robert L. Touart, Katonah, NX., assignor to Generai Foods Corporation, White Flains, NX., a corporation of Delaware Fiied Dec. 3, 1959, Ser. No. 857,006 6 Claims. (Cl. 206-65) This invention relates to a technique of packaging a plurality of smaller package units. More specifically, it relates to a novel combination whereby it is possible both to contain a plurality of small units within a larger unit and to permit marking to be made on the face of the inner containers without penetrating or destroying the outer unit.

As is well known to those skilled-in-the-art, a large number of materials are handled in packages. Many of the materials which are commonly packaged may be marketed in the form of small packages. Although packaging of these materials in such small unitspermits ease of handling, especially at the retail level, it does present numerous problems which must be solved. Typical of these problems is the problem of providing appropriate shipping bundles or packages so that a reasonably large number of smaller units may be conveniently handled. Another problem which frequently faces the retailer in handling such packaged commodities is the fact that each of the individual containers must lbe marked, typically With a price indicia. Although this may be done by the store clerk who removes the individual small cartons from the large container, this is a less than fully satisfactory operation. Aside from the inherent possibility of error, the clerk must perform several functions, each of which iS mutually exclusive and which accordingly may occupy a disproportionate amount of time.

Accordingly those skilled-in-the-art have considered the problem of marking packages at a central location before they are moved along to the clerk within the store. This can only conveniently be done by opening the larger shipping bundle and separately marking the individual containers; the enclosed shipping bundle is then passed along to the clerk who may place the packages on the shelf. This, of course, involves considerable handling of the open bundle with the probable result that occasionally the smaller packages contained within the larger bundle may be spilled or dropped.

IIt is an object of this invention to provide a shipping bundle or package for containing a larger number of smaller containers. lIt is another object of this invention to provide such a bundle wherein the packages contained therein may be readily marked with indicia without perforation or penetration of the enclosing bundle. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled-in-the-art on inspection of the following description.

ln accordance -with certain of its aspects, the shipping bundle of this invention comprises at least one productcontaining package having a marking face, a receptivo coating on at least a portion of said marking face, a Wrapper blank enclosing said product-containing package, and an indicia-responsive coating on at least a portion of the inner surface of said wrapper blank adjacent to a receptively coated marking face of said product-containing package whereby indicia may be formed on said marking face in response to an indicia-generating impulse on the outer surface of said wrapper blank.

rI`he product-containing package which may be used in accordance with this invention, may be a package, container, or carton of any desired size or shape. Preferably, however, it will be block-like in form. -It is a feature of this invention that it may be adapted to be employed with a single package or with a plurality of packages arrayed as hereinafter disclosed. The advantages of this invention are most fully realized when it is used in connection With a plurality of packages. It will be apparent that in some instances, the package may be the product itself, eg. in the case of unwrapped bars of soap.

Typically the preferred packages may have a rectangular cross-section and right-angled (including somewhat rounded) corners. It is a feature of such block-like packages that they can be packed substantially solidly in a single layer to form a much larger block, one face of which contains a face of each of the plurality of cartons. This face may hereafter be referred to -as the marking face because it is this face on which the indicia is preferably made. When the product-containing package is other than block-like, it is preferred that each of the individual packages be appropriately positioned in a predetermined matrix by appropriate means: typically packing of one kind or another, including cardboard spacing means. In this alternative the marking faces (usually the top portion, eg. the cap) of the several packages will preferably be in a common plane.

The shipping bundle proper may be formed of a wrapper blank enclosing the package or packages in the bundle; the wrapper blank will preferably be .formed of a workable sheet-like material. This sheet-like material may preferably vbe readily foldable and more-or-less yieldable. Preferably it will lbe sufficiently thin so that a signal, e.g. a pressure on one surface thereof, may be correctly and readily transferred to the other surface thereof. In the preferred embodiment, this material may be a kraft paper which is of sufficient strength so that -when employed as a shipping Ibundle it will support the package or the pluralty of packages contained therein. `In an alternative embodiment, it may be a light wrap, typically serving as an inner wrap within a strength-providing outer wrap.

IIn a preferred embodiment, the shipping bundle or assembly may include at least one product-containing package which may be wrapped in a ywrapper blank of kraft paper, this being enclosed within a cardboard box of desired strength, which may serve as an outer wrap.

It is a feature of this invention that the wrapper blank contains on at least a portion of one side thereof, which side will, in the finished assembly, be adjacent to the marking face of the product-containing package, an indicia-responsive coating. Depending upon the particular desderata including the type and area of the indicia to be applied, the indicia-responsive coating may be present as a continuous coating.

When the wrapper blank is to packages, the coating may be positioned as a strip adapted to pass close to the marking faces of the packages. When the wrapper blank is to enclose a plurality of packages arranged in a pluralty of rows, as in the preferred embodiment, the indicia-responsive coating may preferably be present as a plurality of strips spaced from each other by the Width of a package which distance is equal to the distance between corresponding points on the marking faces of adjoining packages in adjoining rows.

It is a feature of this invention that the Wrapper blank may contain on one side thereof (which side will in the finished wrapped package be adjacent to the marking faces of the product-containing packages) an indicia-responsive coating which, depcnding on the use to which the invention may be put, may be eg. pressure-sensitive or heatsensitive. Preferably the wrapper blank will be coate with a pressure-sensitive coating formed from a plurality of microscopic capsules having walls of gelled film-forming hydrophilic colloid material, the capsules being present in such number that they are in substantial contiguity, each of the capsules containing an oily water-immiscible printing fluid as a central nucleus around which has been enclose a single row of 3 evenly deposited by coacervation forces, a dense oil-impermeable coating of the colloid material, the capsules being pressure-rupturable.

The so-described coating, when subjected to indicia generating pressure which forces it into contact with the marking face on a package, will form indicia on contact with the marking face when the latter has been sensitized by having thereon a receptive coating of e.g. acid claylike material.

The hydrophilic colloid within which the printing fluid may be encapsulated will preferably be gelatin, although other film-forming hydrophilic colloids such as agar-agar may be employed.

The oily water-immiscible printing fluid may preferably contain an oily Vehicle in which the color reactants hereinafter noted are insoluble. Typically this material may be trichlorodiphenyl, which contains color reactants in amount of up to several percent of the total printing fluid. Other oily materials which can be employed include paraffin oil, vegetable oils including castor oil and cottonseed oil, animal oils including sperm oil or lard oil, and synthetic oils including methyl salicylate.

The coated wrapper blank may be employed in the practice of this invention in connection with the marking face of the product-containing package. In the preferred embodiment, the marking face may bear a receptive coating of an acid claylke material which sensitizes the marking face so that when the treated surface of the coated wrapper is pressed against the so-treated marking face, a colored indicia is generated. Typical acid clay-like materials which may be employed include attapulgite, halloysite, magnesium trisilicate, or treated zeolites, typically hydrogen aluminum Silicate formed eg. from sodium aluminum silicate by the replacement of the sodium with hydrogen.

The color reactants vwithin the printing fluid may include a printing mark substance and a secondary color-reactant. The printing mark substance, which may be colorless but yet capable of forming a colored mark on contact with the acid, clay-like materials as herein noted, may preferably include, e.g. 3,3 bis (p-dimethyl amino-phenyl) -dimethylamino phthalide, i.e., crystal Violet lactone; or 3,3 bis (p-dimethylaminophenyl) phthalide, i.e. malachite green lactone, etc. The secondary color reactant in the oily printing fluid in the preferred embodiment may be one which oxidizes from a normally colorless form to a colored form when in contact with the acid clay-like material after a passage of some hours or days. The preferred secondary color reactant may be benzoyl leuco methylene blue, which after oxidizing, forms a lasting color.

The preferred method of forming the capsules includes the step of treating an aqueous sol of the colloid material having the oil emulsified therein, with a salt solution to cause the colloid material to deposit around the oil droplets, and then causing the colloid to gel. In making up the capsular material, one gallon of an oil-in-water emulsion of 20 parts by weight of trichlorodiphenyl containing the color reactants and 100 parts by weight of a sol of 10% lby weight of pigskin gelatin in water, is prepared, the emulsifying continuing until the drop size of the oil is from 2 to 5 microns.

This material is kept at 50 C. to prevent the gelatin from gelling. With the temperature of the ingredients still kept at 50 C., coacervation then is induced by adding, slowly and uniformly, four-tenths of a gallon of 20% by weight of sodium sulphate in water. The uniform addition of this material is accomplished by continuous agitation.

To gel the coacervate, the heated coacervate mixture is poured into gallons of 7% by weight of sodium sulphate in water at 19 C. with agitation. At this point, the encapsulation of the oil with the gelled hydrophilic colloid material has taken place and the further steps are to put it in condition for use as intended. The material d is filtered and washed with water, the temperature being kept below the melting point of the gelatin, to remove the Salt. If desired, the filtered material is hardened by combining it with 2 gallons of a 37% solution of formaldehyde in water. This hardened mass is then filtered and washed to remove the residual formaldehyde. The resulting filter cake is adjusted to the proper water content by the addition of water or the removal thereof, by ordinary means such as centrifuging or spray drying, and the material is ready for use. As this material is intended for a paper coating composition, it is kept in aqueous Suspension and applied directly to the paper, which is then dried, leaving the capsules adherent to the paper and to each other in a film.

if a portion of this -fluid is sparsely dispersed in water and placed under a microscope, it will be seen to consist of microscopic capsules of the hydrophilic colloid material, the individual capsules being several microns in diameter and each containing a nucleus of oil. As the water content is decreased, the capsules tend to form aggregations, like bunches of grapes. When the material is of the right consistency, it is coated on paper by rollers, spray, brushes, or any other of the commonly used methods of coating paper, and allowed to dry. The material is of such a nature that the capsules are adherent to each other in the coating, and will -adhere to the paper, without the addition of any other binder material.

The coating material should be used in such quantity on the paper that when dried the coated area will be profusely supplied with the Amicroscopic capsules, but such thickness need be no more than a fraction of a thousandth of an inch, because the size of the capsules is in terms of several microns. A four pound coating on a ream of paper 25 inches by 38 inches is satisfactory.

Formation of such a paper which may be used as a wrapper blank may be effected by the technique of U.S. Patent 2,712,507, or alternately by the technique of U.S. Patent 2,730,456, or by other desired technique.

The receptive coating of acid clay-like material on the marking face will preferably be employed in very finely divided form, typioally of the order of 1-5 microns diameter. It may be placed on at least a portion of the marking face in the form of a thin film bound together and to the marking face by a thin film of a binder material. Such binders may include starch and, depending on the .acid clay-like absorbent material, gelatin, methyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, or casein, these latter being particularly suitable for use in connection with zeolites.

In practice of the preferred embodiment of this invention, an indicia-generating stamp may be impressed upon the wrapper blank to force it into contact with the marking face of the package. The energy, eg. the force, provided by this actuating impuise may rupture the capsules on the wrapper blank. .The capsule contents, i.e.

' the oily Vehicle, the printing mark substance, and the secondary color reactant, are then forced into contact with the acid clay-like material on the .marking face; and a color generating reaction occurs whereby an indicia appears on the marking face.

A specific embodiment of this invention may be described in connection with the drawing, wherein certain aspects of the invention are shown.

FIGURE l is a perspective view of one embodiment of this invention with a portion cut away;

lFIGURE 2 is .a similar perspective of another embodiment; and

FIGURE 3 is a schematic sectional view (not to scale) showing a detail of a bundle formed in accordance with this invention.

In the preferred embodiment, as shown in FIGURE 1 of the drawing, the bundle of this invention may include a strength providing outer shell generally designated 10. This is preferably formed of corrugated paper board, eg. two-ply corrugated paper board having an outer face ,sheet 11 and an inner corrugated ply 12. In an alternative embodiment (not shown) it is possible to use, e.g. heavy kraft paper having a weight of about 40-90 pounds per thousand square feet.

The strength-providing outer shell in this embodiment may be formed to provide a bottom panel 1.3 (not shown), side panels 14, end panels 15, end flaps 16, and top flaps 17. These several portions of the outer shell Will, in the preferred embodiment, be formed into an open-topped rectangular parallelepiped shaped box.

In accordance with this invention, the product-containing packages may be placed within the strength-providing outer shell 10. In the embodiment of FIGURE l where the packages 18 are block-like, they may be positioned in a single layer in a purality of rows so that the marking faces (the faces on which it is desired to place markings) are all in the same plane which is preferably the plane of the block which is exposed when the top flaps 17 are open.

In the embodiment of FIGURE 2, the product-containing packages are irregularly shaped, i.e. non-block-like, and they are positioned in fixed predeterrnined positions by a matrixng element 20. IIn the drawing of FIGURE 2, the zmatrixing element 20', as shown may comprise plurality of barriers of e.g. cardboard which position the packages 19 as desired. If desired, this matrixng element may be packing eg. sawdust, etc. Regardless of which matrixing element is employed, the product-containing packages 19 Will be maintained in position such that the marking faces -will be in a common plane which preferably will be substantially the same plane as the upper extremities of the sides and ends 14 and 15 of the container 10.

In a preferred embodiment the marking faces of the packages 18 or 19 will bear on at least a portion thereof a thin coating 22 of acid clay-like material, such as attapulgite, preferably included within a binder of starch. Although this thin coating 22 may be placed on the marking face during formation of the e.g. cardboard package, it may be painted on or sprayed onto the Inarking faces of the packages within the bundle. The thin coating 22 may be placed on the entire marking face or on a predetermined portion thereof.

The wrapper blank 21 as shown in FIGURE 1 may be coated on the side adjacent to the marking faces of the packages 18 with a coating 23 of microscropic, preferably pressure rupturable capsules, formed and coated thereon in manner hereinbefore described. The coating 23 may cover the entire surface of Wrapper blank 21 or it may be placed thereon in strips 24 as shown in FIGURE 2. When this latter technique is employed, the strips wil-l correspond to the location of the clay-like material on the packages.

Although the wrapper -blank 21 may be an insert laid on 'and fitting over the packages 18 or 19 in bundle 10, it will preferably totally enclose the product-containing packages in the embodiments shown in FIGURES 1 and 2.

The particular technique of marking is schematioally shown in IFIGURl-Z 3. Here a marking stylus 25 is forced down against paper 21 which contains layer 23 of material on its under surface. The force of the stylus breaks the capsules in layer 23 which are immediately under the point to which the force is applied. The oily Vehicle, the printing mark substance, land the secondary color reactant are liberated 'from Vthe broken capsu'le and pass into contact with the acid clay-like material in layer 22 on surface 18 and there generate a mark.

It will be Iapparent that in practice of this invention, the

product-containing packages may be marked while they are still totally enclosed within an unbroken package, and thus the possibility of spillage, etc. is minimized.

It is `a feature of this invention that the shipping bundle or package may include only the product-containing packa|ge(s) and the wrapper blank-ie., it is not necessary that an outer shell be provided as shown in the specific embodiment. When the strength-providing outer wrapper is not employed, the wrapper blank will be formed of a healvier paper, e.g. a kraft paper of sufiicient strength so that when employed, it will support the package(s) contained therein. When this be done, the wrapper blank will be tightly Wrapped around the contents, i.e. suficiently tightly to fir-mly hold the contents in a more-or-less rigid position.

It will be apparent that depending upon the particular product and the conditions under which it is to be handled, it may merely be firmly wrapped in a wrapper blank and shipped thusly; or it may be so-wrapped and then packaged in a much larger package together with other similar packages. In this latter case the several packages may be removed from the larger package and handled (i.e. subjected to indoia-generating impulse) separately.

It will be apparent to those skilled-in-the-art that although this invention has been described in connection with certain specific embodiments, numerous modifications may ibe made therein which fall within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A bundle comprising a plurality of product-containing packages arranged in an array according to a predetermined pattern, each of said packages having a marking face directed outwardly from said array, a receptivo coating on at -least a portion of each of said marking faces, a wrapper blank supporting and enclosing said array of packages, and fan indicia-responsive coating at the portions of the inner surface of said wrapper blank immediately adjacent to the portions of said marking faces having said receptive coating thereon, whereby an indicia generating impulse on an aligned portion of the outer surface of said wrapper blank causes said indiciaaesponsive coating to imprint indicia on the corresponding marking face.

2. A bundle as claimed in claim. 1 wherein said indicia responsive coating is pressure-sensitive.

3. A bundle as claimed in claim l wherein said wrapper blank includes a separate sheet interposed between the marking faces on said packages and the outer wrap, said indiciaeresponsive coating being on the inner surface of said separate sheet.

4. A bundle as claimed in claim 1 wherein said indiciaresponsive coating is formed of hydrophilic colloid material containing droplets of a printing fluid.

5. A bundle as olaimed in claim 4 wherein said indiciaresponsive coating includes `a web comprising pressurerupzturable microscopic capsules having walls of hydrophi-lic colloid material enclosing a liquid organic Vehicle containing a marking material.

6. A Ybundle as claimed in claim 4 wherein said receptively coated marking face comprises acid clay-like material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,464,9\l2 Lindenschmidt Aug. 14, 1923 2,712,507 Green July 5, 1955 2,929,736 Miller. Mar. 22, 1960 

